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Soot vacs?

Hey guys I was going to post this in the oil section but figured it is a tool in a sense so why not post it here, Im sure ill get a better answer here then in the oil section lol. Anyway Im getting into a busy time for me. I do alot of oil side work and I was thinking it might be a good idea to get a quality vacuum and something that wont break my bank while doing the side work. I have a cheap shop vac that I use here and there but I hate the thought of having an issue with it when at a customers home. At my house its one thing but somebodys elses would be real bad to me.

I did a look around and some of the soot vacs that I found are close to 500 or so. So I kept searching and it seems a few that I found are some that look like there for fireplaces and I was wondering would they work good for cleaning a boiler or warm air furnace?

I don't see how you have been getting away with a cheap shop vac. But apparently you see the need for a better vacuum. So why would you go with another cheap vacuum. Buy a Sootmaster and be done with it.

wicat, We have been buying them from Sid Harvey's. Theirs are a rebranded SootMasters without the cost. I think that you have Sid's in CT don't you? The difference in buying from someone like Sid's and buying it online is getting some help with warranty issues and replacement parts.

i see sid harveys has them I just havent priced them out. My problem is I dont know if I can justify paying something like 500 bucks for a vacuum that I wont use all the time. I have been able to get away because most of the time when I was doing the side work I was working for an oil company and had everything on my truck. I dont work for a company like that anymore so to get a soot vac I would have to buy one. My house was pretty clean when I service it so my shop vac does a decent job at picking it up but thats just my house.

If you really have to use the shop vac can't you vent the exhaust from the vac to the outdoors? I've seen someone stick a shop vac into a pile of nice fluffy dark soot and it just shot out of the shop vac lol! The house had a fine layer of black dust every where. I felt bad but it was pretty funny.

I just got done with a dandy of a Sooted up boiler. Only had to dump my vacuum and bang the soot off the filter of my 40 dollar shop-vac 3 times but the entire soot removal took me about 5 hours. Just wondering if this high quality soot master vacuum is worth it. Like what does it do better than a cheap vac like I have been using? I'm all for making these nightmare calls easier. Our small shop gets a plugged hx about every other week in the heating season.

More importantly, why is your hex plugging so frequently, if at all? Sounds like a severe lack of combustible air. I've seen this in auto body shops & woodworking shops--places with lots of dust/powerful dust collection.
What kind of heater/burner? You may need to get a combustion air intake kit to bring in fresh air for combustion. And get the heating unit properly tuned.

I use a Ridgid vac, the 5 gallon version. I bought my original vac 13 years ago and have thousands of oil cleanings go through it. I've only replaced filters and the hoses. I did so man C&Ts that the narrow plastic end of the hose wore down to the wide end. It's noisy but the muffler attachment works pretty well.

Anyone know where to get a soot snake? The one I had a long time ago was flexible corrugated steel about 4 feet or so long. One end fit inside the shop vac hose. I think it may have been a Sid Harvey brand?

Experience - knowing when to get the hell out of the way and plug your ears. "Don't be a sissy. Turn it on!" Poodle Head Mikey - "the world is well populated with the unknowing and the uncaring and the stupid."

Hey guys I was going to post this in the oil section but figured it is a tool in a sense so why not post it here, Im sure ill get a better answer here then in the oil section lol. Anyway Im getting into a busy time for me. I do alot of oil side work and I was thinking it might be a good idea to get a quality vacuum and something that wont break my bank while doing the side work. I have a cheap shop vac that I use here and there but I hate the thought of having an issue with it when at a customers home. At my house its one thing but somebodys elses would be real bad to me.

I did a look around and some of the soot vacs that I found are close to 500 or so. So I kept searching and it seems a few that I found are some that look like there for fireplaces and I was wondering would they work good for cleaning a boiler or warm air furnace?

You might want to check out the Koblenz AG-1200.

It's a bagless vacuum that traps all the dust and dirt in a water tank which you then just pour out the mud.
Might work just as well on soot.

Maybe more than you want to pay at around $400, but water filtration vacuums are as close to 100% effective

I use a regular cheap shop vac (ACE hardware brand I think) I only run across a soothed up oil furnace once every year or 2 though. Most everything here is ng, lp, or heat pumps. There's still a few oil furnaces and boilers out there but they're few and far between and getting fewer every year thankfully. I leave the shop vac outside the crawl space, basement or what have you and duct tape 3/4" liquid tight conduit to the hose, fits into the chamber and flue pretty well and doesn't get clogged too much. I hate oil furnaces with a passion for one reason... The smell won't go away and gives me a headache.

Dont laugh but this is what I use 99% of the time now. Most new oil stuff burns so clean its all I need. I have the soot master still but hardly ever use it.
This little vac is great it never makes a mess and will suck up anything.http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-0880...lwalkee+vacuum

Dont laugh but this is what I use 99% of the time now. Most new oil stuff burns so clean its all I need. I have the soot master still but hardly ever use it.
This little vac is great it never makes a mess and will suck up anything.http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-0880...lwalkee+vacuum